Monday, October 23, 2023

UK
Sycamore Gap tree ‘stored in secret location over souvenir hunter fears’

(Owen Humphreys/PA)

By Luke O'Reilly, PAToday

The Sycamore Gap tree is being stored in a secret location to protect it from souvenir hunters, it has been reported.

According to the Sunday Times, police caught several members of the public trying to take pieces of the tree from the site where it was felled near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.

The National Trust has asked the public for suggestions on what to do with the leftover wood from the felled tree (Owen Humphreys/PA)

The tree has since been removed from the site by a crane, and is now being kept at a storage facility by the National Trust.

Much-photographed and painted, the lone sycamore is considered to be one of the most famous trees in the world and an emblem for the North East of England.

It was situated in a dramatic dip in the Northumberland landscape.

Lady Jane Gibson, chairwoman of the Hadrian’s Wall Partnership, told the Sunday Times: “The wood from the tree has been taken away and stored for safekeeping at a secure location.

Much-photographed and painted, the lone sycamore is considered to be one of the most famous trees in the world and an emblem for the North East of England (Tom White/PA)

“There were concerns people were taking pieces of it for mementoes, like what happened with the Berlin Wall, when people would take a piece as a keepsake.

“It is now being safely stored as we work on potential future uses for the timber.”

The National Trust has asked the public for suggestions on what to do with the leftover wood from the felled tree, with options including turning it into a bench where the tree once stood, or even making it into pencils.

Sycamore Gap: Using legacy of Hadrian's Wall tree to save others

Image caption,
The Sycamore Gap tree, which once stood in a dip next to Hadrian's Wall, was cherished by many

By Samantha Jagger

BBC News

The felling of the Sycamore Gap tree sparked an outpouring of emotion from millions of people. Ecologists are now wondering if they can harness that "grief". Could the tree's lasting legacy be improving the future of our woodlands?

It has been almost a month since the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree, which once sat next to Hadrian's Wall, was deliberately cut down.

After it was chopped up and removed from its site last week, the National Trust said it was "time to start talking about the future".

But for ecologists studying thousands of other trees, the future of the UK's woodlands is looking uncertain, and now they are hoping this one tree could trigger more interest in saving others under threat.

Watch: Sycamore Gap tree moved from site

Image caption,
The felled tree at Sycamore Gap, along Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland

"I think that it's important to harness the grief over the Sycamore Gap tree to motivate people to take positive environmental action," Dr Julie Urquhart, associate professor in environmental social science at the University of Gloucestershire, said.

"Sadly, the senseless destruction of this globally, culturally-important tree is also a symbolic reminder of humanity's wider destruction of nature through human-induced climate change, deforestation, overpopulation and pollution."

British Ecological Society experts recently warned that the UK's woodland cover had become "highly fragmented", while the Woodland Trust said ancient woodland now covered just 2.5% of the UK.

Image caption,
Of the UK's forest cover, about half is made up of native tree species, such as oak, beech and ash

"The UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe. It has around 13% forest cover, compared to an average of 38% across Europe as a whole and 31% worldwide," Dr Urquhart said.

"This is partly due to the UK's population density and the many competing demands on land cover, particularly agriculture, housing and transport," she added.

Of the 13% cover, about half is made up of native tree species, such as oak, beech and ash, the remaining half comprises non-native trees, such as conifers grown commercially for timber.

In 2021, a review of the state of Britain's native woods and trees found only 7% were in a good condition.

Image caption,
Dr Julie Urquhart said the UK was one of the least wooded countries in Europe

Dr Urquhart said that although woodland cover had increased from an all-time low of 5% in the 1900s, woodlands were often placed far apart from each other.

"This makes it very difficult for animal and plant species to move between those patches of woodland - it can also lead to a loss of genetic diversity due to inbreeding," Dr Urquhart continued.

In the 2021 review, a decline in wildlife in ancient woodland was reported by the Woodland Trust, which added that many of these areas were in "poor ecological condition".

The pear tree in Cubbington was felled to make way for HS2

The trust said the UK's trees and woodlands were under threat from a number of factors including climate change, pollution and attack from deadly tree diseases and pests.

It reported that more than 1,000 irreplaceable ancient woods had been threatened by development since 2013.

The trust pointed to the Cubbington pear tree, thought to be more than 250 years old, which was chopped down in Warwickshire to make way for the HS2 rail line in 2020.

The British Ecological Society's president Prof Yadvinder Malhi, who specialises in ecosystem science at the University of Oxford, said that with each passing generation, "our collective memory of the species that once called our land home dwindles".

"The outpouring of emotion around the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree in such a beautiful setting shows the powerful potential connection that we have with nature, its loss and its recovery," he said.

"But it is also important to note that this tree sits in a landscape that has lost so much biodiversity over the years - to which we can be oblivious.

"We don't know what 'good' nature looks like anymore."

Image caption,
Prof Yadvinder Malhi said the tree sat in a landscape that had "lost so much biodiversity"

However, Prof Malhi said there was still "so much potential for the UK landscape and its biodiversity to flourish and be far richer than it is".

"The grassland areas in the UK still contain much valuable biodiversity, but a mosaic landscape with both more trees and grassland could be so much more ecologically vibrant," he added.

Now the question remains - How do we make up for this loss? Can we plant more trees? It is a question seen hundreds of times, especially in the aftermath of Sycamore Gap.

Image caption,
A crane was brought in to remove the Sycamore Gap tree, which was cut into large pieces

Dr Urquhart said that while expanding tree cover in the UK was important, efforts should be concentrated on saving our native species.

"Even if they are located in areas that are earmarked for new housing or roads or other developments, we urgently need to put in better safeguards to protect trees," she said.

"The real challenge is how do you replace such a culturally important and valued tree, like Sycamore Gap, which has taken hundreds of years to grow.

"I think this spotlights a really important issue - even planting hundreds of new trees won't replace the cultural relevance of this one tree."

Dr Urquhart asked people to look at the national tree wardens scheme, where people can sign up as a volunteer to plant, protect and promote their local trees.

"Local planning authorities are also responsible for Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) that protect certain trees of value within the authority," she said.

"You don't have to own the land a tree sits on to apply for a TPO, if it is in good health and is of visual importance viewing from public areas."

Image caption,
In the last five years about 56,000 trees have been felled in the Forest of Dean due to tree disease

Meanwhile the Woodland Trust has urged people to take a look at its campaign to grant ancient trees legal protection.

"Most ancient trees have no real legal protection in the UK," the charity's lead campaigner Jack Taylor said.

"They deserve the same sort of protection enjoyed by old buildings and other endangered wildlife."

The trust described UK woodland as "cathedrals of nature" which should be "treated like national treasures".

The reaction to Sycamore Gap's demise showed many people do feel that way. The Northumberland landmark was more than 100 years old so we will not see a full replacement in our lifetime.

It now remains to be seen whether it can instead grow a greater interest for woodlands teetering on the brink of destruction.

FASCISTS BREAK SANCTIONS

Hungary to ramp up Russian gas imports for winter, says Gazprom

The announcement comes just days after Hungarian Prime Minister Orban held talks with Russian President Putin.

Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said that "significant additional volumes are reaching the Hungarian market" | Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images

BY GABRIEL GAVIN
OCTOBER 22, 2023

Hungary is set to make increased purchases of Russian gas this winter, Moscow's state-owned energy giant Gazprom said, despite growing criticism in the West that the arrangement is funding the war in Ukraine.

Speaking on state television on Sunday, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said that "significant additional volumes are reaching the Hungarian market." He added that 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas have already been delivered to Hungary on top of existing contracts this year.

"We will supply additional volumes on an ongoing basis in the autumn-winter period of the coming winter," said Miller, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K. for his role in supporting Russia's war in Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Beijing, with the discussions centered on gas and oil shipments, as well as the supply of nuclear fuel. Orbán has previously said Budapest "will not allow sanctions that would further increase Hungarian inflation," and held up discussions of tougher restrictions at an EU level.

David Pressman, the American ambassador to Hungary, blasted the Orban-Putin meeting as "troubling" and said there is now a need to discuss the central European nation's "deepening relationship with Russia."

Hungary's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to confirm or comment on Gazprom's statement, with a switchboard operator telling POLITICO that the country's officials are enjoying a long weekend off to mark Republic Day — commemorating the 1956 attempted revolution against Stalinist repression that saw as many as 3,000 Hungarians killed by Soviet forces and their local proxies.

In April, Oleg Ustenko, economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that a series of new deals between Hungary and Russia made the EU member state complicit in the Ukraine conflict. “You have to be completely blind not to see what kinds of crimes you are sponsoring. Buying more gas from the Russians means you are giving them more capacity to escalate the war,” he told POLITICO.

"The security of Hungary's energy supply requires uninterrupted transportation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel," Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said following an agreement earlier this year that allowed Gazprom to sell additional supplies in the country. "To meet these three conditions, Hungarian-Russian energy cooperation must be uninterrupted. It has nothing to do with political preferences."

Visitors tour New Mexico atomic site in likely record attendance fueled by 'Oppenheimer' fanfare

Visitors lined up Saturday to tour the southern New Mexico site where the world's first atomic bomb was detonated in what officials believe could be a record turnout amid ongoing fanfare surrounding Christopher Nolan's blockbuster film, " Oppenheimer."

Thousands of visitors are expected at the Trinity Site, a designated National Historic Landmark that's usually closed to the public because of its proximity to the impact zone for missiles fired at White Sands Missile Range. But twice a year, in April and October, the site opens to spectators. No attendance numbers were immediately available at midnight Saturday. In a social media post, the missile range said vehicles were lined up for more than 2 miles at the site before the tours started Saturday.

White Sands officials warned online that the wait to enter the gates could be as long as two hours. No more than 5,000 visitors are expected to make it within the window between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Visitors also are being warned to come prepared as Trinity Site is in a remote area with limited Wi-Fi and no cell service or restrooms.

"Oppenheimer," the retelling of the work of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, was a summer box office smash. Scientists and military officials established a secret city in Los Alamos during the 1940s and tested their work at the Trinity Site some 200 miles (322 kilometers) away.

Part of the film's success was due to the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon in which filmgoers made a double feature outing of the "Barbie" movie and "Oppenheimer."

While the lore surrounding the atomic bomb has become pop culture fodder, it was part of a painful reality for residents who lived downwind of Trinity Site. The Tularosa Basin Downwinders plan to protest outside the gates to remind visitors about a side of history they say the movie failed to acknowledge.

The group says the U.S. government never warned residents about the testing. Radioactive ash contaminated soil and water. Rates of infant mortality, cancer and other illnesses increased. There are younger generations dealing with health issues now, advocates say.

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium has worked with the Union of Concerned Scientists and others for years to bring attention to the Manhattan Project's impact. A new documentary by filmmaker Lois Lipman, "First We Bombed New Mexico," made its world premiere Friday at the Santa Fe International Film Festival.

The notoriety from "Oppenheimer" has been embraced in Los Alamos, more than 200 miles (321 kilometers) north of the Tularosa Basin. About 200 locals, many of them Los Alamos National Laboratory employees, were extras in the film, and the city hosted an Oppenheimer Festival in July.

ISRO to have a space station by 2035? Here’s what India’s celestial future looks like

It is envisioned that this space station will be significantly smaller than its international counterparts, weighing approximately 20 tonnes, in stark contrast to the International Space Station’s 450 tonnes and the Chinese Tiangong Space Station’s 100 tonnes.

Written by FE Online

October 22, 2023

India aspires to send its first astronaut to the Moon by 2040. (Representational Image)

In a landmark announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed an ambitious vision for the country’s space endeavors. Just two months after celebrating the successful lunar landing and launching a mission to explore the Sun, Modi outlined a roadmap for India’s future in space.

During a high-level meeting convened to review the Gaganyaan Mission – ISRO’s human spaceflight program – and set the course for India’s space exploration efforts, the Prime Minister disclosed two groundbreaking goals. By 2035, India aims to establish its very own space station, a project tentatively named the ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ or Indian Space Station. Moreover, India aspires to send its first astronaut to the Moon by 2040.

India’s space exploration

These ambitious directives have garnered significant attention, marking a historic step in India’s pursuit of excellence in space science and exploration. But that’s not all. Prime Minister Modi also challenged India’s scientific community to work towards a Venus Orbiter Mission and a Mars Lander Mission, further underscoring the country’s determination to become a formidable player in space exploration.

To achieve these visionary space missions, India’s Department of Space has been entrusted with the task of developing a comprehensive roadmap for lunar exploration, emphasizing a sequence of Chandrayaan missions. These missions, building on the recent success of Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1, are expected to culminate in the return of lunar samples – a significant feat that will advance our understanding of the Moon and the solar system.

Several project on the card

Additionally, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will embark on a series of pioneering endeavors. This includes the development of a next-generation launch vehicle, a new launch pad, and state-of-the-art human-centric laboratories and technologies, such as a human-rated launch vehicle, crew escape system, space suits, and systems to maintain the environment within the crew module. These groundbreaking technologies are being developed for the first time as part of the Gaganyaan mission.

The announcement of three uncrewed missions within the Gaganyaan program is noteworthy, as it goes beyond the initial plan of two such missions preceding the final mission with astronauts. This change underscores India’s commitment to meticulous testing and preparation to ensure a successful human spaceflight.

Large Hadron Collider Experiment Could Help Reveal Undiscovered Subatomic Particles

A new method for measuring how fast a particle called the tau wobbles could uncover new particles.

THE CONVERSATION,

JESSE LIUANDDENNIS V. PEREPELITSA
OCT. 22, 2023

koto_feja/E+/Getty Images

One way physicists seek clues to unravel the mysteries of the universe is by smashing matter together and inspecting the debris. But these types of destructive experiments, while incredibly informative, have limits.

We are two scientists who study nuclear and particle physics using CERN’s Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. Working with an international group of nuclear and particle physicists, our team realized that hidden in the data from previous studies was a remarkable and innovative experiment.

In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, we developed a new method with our colleagues for measuring how fast a particle called the tau wobbles.

Our novel approach looks at the times incoming particles in the accelerator whiz by each other rather than the times they smash together in head-on collisions. Surprisingly, this approach enables far more accurate measurements of the tau particle’s wobble than previous techniques. This is the first time in nearly 20 years scientists have measured this wobble, known as the tau magnetic moment, and it may help illuminate tantalizing cracks emerging in the known laws of physics.

WHY MEASURE A WOBBLE?

Electrons, the building blocks of atoms, have two heavier cousins called the muon and the tau. Taus are the heaviest in this family of three and the most mysterious, as they exist only for minuscule amounts of time.

Interestingly, when you place an electron, muon, or tau inside a magnetic field, these particles wobble in a manner similar to how a spinning top wobbles on a table. This wobble is called a particle’s magnetic moment. It is possible to predict how fast these particles should wobble using the Standard Model of particle physics – scientists’ best theory of how particles interact.

Since the 1940s, physicists have been interested in measuring magnetic moments to reveal intriguing effects in the quantum world. According to quantum physics, clouds of particles and antiparticles are constantly popping in and out of existence. These fleeting fluctuations slightly alter how fast electrons, muons, and taus wobble inside a magnetic field. By measuring this wobble very precisely, physicists can peer into this cloud to uncover possible hints of undiscovered particles.

TESTING ELECTRONS, MUONS, AND TAUS

In 1948, theoretical physicist Julian Schwinger first calculated how the quantum cloud alters the electron’s magnetic moment. Since then, experimental physicists have measured the speed of the electron’s wobble to an extraordinary 13 decimal places.

The heavier the particle, the more its wobble will change because of undiscovered new particles lurking in its quantum cloud. Since electrons are so light, this limits their sensitivity to new particles.

Muons and taus are much heavier but also far shorter-lived than electrons. While muons exist only for mere microseconds, scientists at Fermilab near Chicago measured the muon’s magnetic moment to 10 decimal places in 2021. They found that muons wobbled noticeably faster than Standard Model predictions, suggesting unknown particles may be appearing in the muon’s quantum cloud.

Taus is the heaviest particle of the family – 17 times more massive than a muon and 3,500 times heavier than an electron. This makes them much more sensitive to potentially undiscovered particles in the quantum clouds. But taus are also the hardest to see since they live for just a millionth of the time a muon exists.

To date, the best measurement of the tau’s magnetic moment was made in 2004 using a now-retired electron collider at CERN. Though an incredible scientific feat, after multiple years of collecting data, that experiment could measure the speed of the tau’s wobble to only two decimal places. Unfortunately, to test the Standard Model, physicists would need a measurement ten times as precise.

LEAD IONS FOR NEAR-MISS PHYSICS

Since the 2004 measurement of the tau’s magnetic moment, physicists have been seeking new ways to measure the tau wobble.

The Large Hadron Collider usually smashes the nuclei of two atoms together – that is why it is called a collider. These head-on collisions create a fireworks display of debris that can include taus, but the noisy conditions preclude careful measurements of the tau’s magnetic moment.

From 2015 to 2018, there was an experiment at CERN that was designed primarily to allow nuclear physicists to study exotic hot matter created in head-on collisions. The particles used in this experiment were lead nuclei that had been stripped of their electrons – called lead ions. Lead ions are electrically charged and produce strong electromagnetic fields.

The electromagnetic fields of lead ions contain particles of light called photons. When two lead ions collide, their photons can also collide and convert all their energy into a single pair of particles. It was these photon collisions that scientists used to measure muons.

These lead ion experiments ended in 2018, but it wasn’t until 2019 that one of us, Jesse Liu, teamed up with particle physicist Lydia Beresford in Oxford, England, and realized the data from the same lead ion experiments could potentially be used to do something new: measure the tau’s magnetic moment.

This discovery was a total surprise. It goes like this: Lead ions are so small that they often miss each other in collision experiments. But occasionally, the ions pass close to each other without touching. When this happens, their accompanying photons can still smash together while the ions continue flying on their merry way.

These photon collisions can create a variety of particles – like the muons in the previous experiment, and also taus. But without the chaotic fireworks produced by head-on collisions, these near-miss events are far quieter and ideal for measuring traits of the elusive tau.

Much to our excitement, when the team looked back at data from 2018, indeed, these lead ion near misses were creating tau particles. There was a new experiment hidden in plain sight!

THE FIRST MEASUREMENT OF TAU WOBBLE IN TWO DECADES

In April 2022, the CERN team announced that we had found direct evidence of tau particles created during lead ion near misses. The team was also able to measure the tau magnetic moment – the first time such a measurement had been done since 2004. The final results were published on Oct. 12, 2023.

This landmark result measured the tau wobble to two decimal places. Much to our astonishment, this method tied the previous best measurement using only one month of data recorded in 2018.

After no experimental progress for nearly 20 years, this result opens an entirely new and important path toward the tenfold improvement in precision needed to test Standard Model predictions. Excitingly, more data is on the horizon.

The Large Hadron Collider just restarted lead ion data collection on Sept. 28, 2023, after routine maintenance and upgrades. Our team plans to quadruple the sample size of lead ion near-miss data by 2025. This increase in data will double the accuracy of the measurement of the tau magnetic moment, and improvements to analysis methods may go even further.

Tau particles are one of physicists’ best windows to the enigmatic quantum world, and we are excited for surprises that approaching results may reveal about the fundamental nature of the universe.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by Jesse Liu at the University of Cambridge and Dennis V. Perepelitsa at the University of Colorado Boulder. Read the original article here.

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Monday, October 23, 2023

Visitors tour New Mexico atomic site in likely record attendance fueled by 'Oppenheimer' fanfare

It is envisioned that this space station will be significantly smaller than its international counterparts, weighing approximately 20 tonnes, in stark contrast to the International Space Station’s 450 tonnes and the Chinese Tiangong Space Station’s 100 tonnes.

India’s space exploration

Several project on the card

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